College football: Rams' Dan Light is excited to return

Dan Light has many Fitton Field memories, the first when he was a 7-year-old and his Pop Warner team played at halftime of a Holy Cross game.

"I remember I really wanted to score because I had never seen painted end zones before," Light recalled this week. "I really wanted to get in there."He did score a rushing touchdown that day and years later helped his St. John's High teams to Thanksgiving Day victories over St. Peter-Marian on the same field.

Light, Fordham's starting tight end, will be back for more tomorrow when the Rams take on Holy Cross at 1 p.m. Light, who grew up in Sutton, expects to have a very large cheering section.

"It will be like a home game," the sophomore said. "I'm definitely excited about it."

Light started 10 games last year as a true freshman, but Fordham struggled during a one-win season and fired coach Tom Masella at the end of it. Losing was something that Light, who quarterbacked St. John's to the Division 1 Super Bowl championship as a senior, certainly was not used to. New coach Joe Moorhead has reinvigorated the program, Light said, and Fordham's 4-3 record is proof of that.

"Losing last season was definitely a hard experience," Light said. "But I definitely feel like I learned from it. It makes us appreciate a good season a lot more."

Light was a slot receiver at St. John's before taking over the starting quarterback duties from the graduated Griffin Murphy, who is now his Fordham teammate.

The transition to tight end took a little time for the 6-foot-4, 232-pound Light, but he caught 23 passes for 233 yards and a touchdown last season.

"The hardest thing was getting used to the blocking," Light said. "I was used to the athletic part of it from being a receiver, but as far as getting down and blocking like a lineman, I wasn't used to that at all, so that was an adjustment."

This year, Light has 18 catches for 178 yards, but Moorhead seems more impressed with Light's contributions to the run game. He's helped the Rams average 143.7 rushing yards a game, third most in the Patriot League.

"He's done an excellent job in the run game," Moorhead said. "He's really embraced that aspect of the game. We knew he could run around and catch the ball and do things athletically, but he's really focused on the run game part of it and the blocking and the physical part of the position and he's done a real good job with it."

Murphy, a junior backup quarterback, has had a run of bad luck with injuries. He missed his entire freshman season because of an injury, and after playing in six games last season, Murphy suffered a knee injury in spring practice.

Holy Cross has won four straight against Fordham, but the Rams' talent that HC coach Tom Gilmore has been talking about for the last few years is finally coming together.

"It was an absolute mystery why they weren't winning," Gilmore said. "They just weren't playing well together as a team. A new coaching staff comes in and they're playing well, and I'm not surprised. They've done an outstanding job."

Holy Cross welcomed a new member to the team this week.

Through Team IMPACT, a nonprofit program that improves the quality of life for children facing life threatening illnesses, 13-year-old North Grafton resident Sean Thompson, who is undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, became a Crusader.

After Wednesday's practice, Holy Cross players and coaches joined Sean as he signed a letter of intent, and presented him with a hat, game jersey and ball. After the ceremony, Sean, a talented flag football player, joined his new teammates on the practice field to play catch.

"It was great being out there after practice throwing the ball around with him and getting to know him," HC junior defensive back Philip Gough said. "He's just a regular kid, a good athlete. It's cool to see how strong he is throughout this whole ordeal he's got going on. It's inspiring."

This is the HC football team's first involvement with Team IMPACT. Children in the program are drafted onto local college athletic teams and become an official member of the team for the duration of their treatment and beyond.

Sean and his parents, Elaine and Andrew, will be at Fitton Field tomorrow to cheer on the Crusaders against Fordham, and Gough said Sean will be a regular presence at practice for the rest of the season.

Sacramento State dedicated its 1969 season to Holy Cross, whose final eight games were canceled because of the hepatitis outbreak.

Forty-three years later, Holy Cross is paying tribute to the Hornets and one of their lost leaders.

Beginning tomorrow and for the remainder of the season, the Crusaders will wear a No. 43 helmet decal in memory of Sacramento State senior defensive end John Bloomfield, who died Oct. 21. Bloomfield suffered a collapsed lung early in the season. He suffered complications and internal bleeding after several surgeries and fell into a coma.

Shewchuk presented the idea for the helmet decals to Gilmore last week.

In 1969, Sacramento State players wore purple jerseys for their game against Puget Sound and flew HC co-captains Tom Lamb and Bill Moncevicz to the game. Sacramento State flanker Mike Carter, who initiated his team's involvement with Holy Cross, was presented with an honorary O'Melia Award.

Also tomorrow at Fitton Field, HC for a Cure, a breast cancer awareness club on campus, will be selling T-shirts, tank tops and long-sleeve shirts to benefit Pink Revolution. HC players will wear pink shoelaces to help raise awareness for the fight against breast cancer.

With his school-record 17 receptions in last week's overtime loss to Coast Guard, Worcester State junior wideout A.J. Scerra of Marlboro set a program single-season record for catches with 72, which leads NCAA Division 3.

Scerra ranks sixth nationally in catches per game with 11.29 and he is 14 receptions away from second place on Worcester State's all-time list and 33 away from the career mark held by Bryan Keats.

The Lancers host Fitchburg State in their Homecoming game at 1:30.

Anna Maria senior kicker Jamal Mitchell was named to the Beyond Sports Network (BSN) National Division 3 Team of the Week.Mitchell made four field goals and three PATs in last week's loss to Castleton State.